We live in a world that changes if we change. When I was a boy, when students talked about money in the classroom, there would be a teacher who would scold them with a straight face, telling them, ”Don’t just think about money,” and it was hard for children to talk about money openly. However, it seems that an increasing number of schools are now offering classes on financial products and investments under the title of ”financial and economic education”.

For an adult like me who spent my childhood, this may seem strange, but I guess this is also a sign of the times. It is true that if you learn something, you will accumulate it as knowledge, and your options in life will expand accordingly. It’s good to learn something, whether it’s Japanese, English, mathematics, physics, or money.
What we should focus on is the background behind the increased demand for financial and economic education. The influence of ”lost 30 years” lies heavily there. In particular, young people who are living in a prolonged economic downturn are likely to have greater anxiety about the future, and to that extent they are likely to be more conscious of money.

Some people say, ”It’s good to learn correct literacy about money through financial and economic education, but it shouldn’t be biased toward investment strategies.” However, if we look at the reality, many young people who have received financial and economic education do not focus on investment strategies. It will probably lean towards. What is the purpose of financial and economic education? In the extreme, it’s about increasing your own assets.
With the development of AI, advanced investment strategies will become commonplace in the near future. It is likely that cases of entrusting investment strategies to AI or having AI build portfolios will continue to increase.
By allocating personal assets to risky investments, Japan’s economy should be revitalized, at least temporarily. On the other hand, risk means that some people will succeed and others will fail.
I wonder how the old teacher’s reprimand, ”Don’t just think about money,” will resonate in society in the future. (Kei Kitajima)